The Weekly 2000 AD – Prog 2407 – Imagine Dredd Dealing With The Election

Taking a look inside the UK’s greatest sci-fi comic, the Galaxy’s Greatest… it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

Okay then, after last week’s extra large Prog, it’s back to the usual five strips here, meaning it’s all the thrills of Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Nightmare New York, plus two great Dan Abnett scripted works – the strange world of Azimuth with Tazio Bettin and the absolute magnificence of The Out with Mark Harrison.

All that under a cover from Paul Williams. And no, I really don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that, on the first 2000 AD after Election Day USA, we have this cover…

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Oh yes. So, if you’re reading this over in the USA, I hope you went out and voted. I’m the hubby of a citizen and even I was proud to just be in the tent by the machine when Mrs B did the voting thing.

2000 AD Prog #2407 is out in the UK on 6th November in the UK. You American readers need to go to your local comic shop and get them to order in the monthly four-Prog bundles. Seriously, you won’t regret doing that for a moment.

So, onwards and upwards, let’s show you what’s happening in the latest Prog…

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JUDGE DREDD: THE COMFORT ZONE – PART 1 – by Mike Carroll and Ben Willsher. Letters by Annie Parkhouse.

This one might be one of the action Dredds – I say might because that’s how it starts but given that Mike Carroll writes a damn good Dredd I’m not guessing which way he’ll take this one.

But anyway, we’re opening right in the middle of things (‘in media res’ if we’re throwing around the jargon). In the middle of things  here translates as a typically great chase choreographed by Ben Willsher, with Dredd in pursuit of some cybernetic baddie who’s managed to hack the Halls of Justice.

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Anyway, with the cyber-perp trapped in riot foam and Tek-Div on the case, Dredd’s going out into Squatsville, the encampment outside the walls of the city, where the cyber-perp was headed. But, as a case of very big foreshadowing tells us, there’s already a Judge out there doing voluntary duty out there. But that’s one for next time.

What we get here is the first episode of something that’s either going to be an out and out action Dredd or something more… and it’s so nice to have that uncertainty. One thing I’m always pretty sure of where Carroll’s concerned, it’s going to be good fun.

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AZIMUTH: THE FABLED BASILISK – PART 2 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin. Colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

Back to Azimuth and it’s a walk-and-talk episode, and not the only one Abnett will do this Prog either. But hey, walk and talk is good when it’s done with style and great dialogue (just look at The West Wing).

Actually, it’s walk-and-talk with Dexter and Andi (you’ll note, Andi, not Anderson) where there’s discussion of other worlds, other realities. Some of which might describe how a Judge (if that’s what she is) is here in Downlode, or at least the Azimuth bit of Downlode, however that’s working anyway. A Judge looking sort of like a Judge but different enough to make it feel like things are off-kilter here… and off-kilter they are. That’s the whole point of Azimuth, everything here’s just not quite right, off just that little bit, a world apart where the usual rules just don’t apply.

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Anyway, Dexter and ‘Andi’ have a chat, en route to a meeting/showdown with The Twins, the Cray Twins, Lords of the New Flesh. Why they’re heading that way, well, Dexter’s trying to work out why Suzi-Nine-Millimetre’s after him and has found out the Cray Twins are the reason behind it all.

Meanwhile, Suzi’s taking counsel with Papa Legday, whose advice is basically ‘get out of Dodge’. Well, she’s not going to take that advice, all leading to a conflict, although Dexter and Andi find that the Cray Twins have plenty more in their nightmare arsenal to throw in their way first.

So many things going on. So many wonderfully different things in the wonderfully different city of Azimuth. Trust in Dan Abnett, he’s an old hand at making strange things happen so damn well. And with Tazio Bettin, he’s found the perfect artist to show us the weird and wonderful of Azimuth.

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NIGHTMARE NEW YORK – PART 7 – by Kek-W and David Roach. Colours by Peter Doherty, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

With Lil underneath Mulberry Street with the ghost lady, Moloch’s forces move in above ground, and Jimmy Blind is about to make a deal with the devil to give Moloch what he wants.

Betrayal based on love above ground, Lil discovering just an inkling of her powers below ground, and us discovering, very late, who the mysterious Banfhaidh (the wise woman, sage, seeress) really is.

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Yes, it’s all motoring along nicely, perils at every stage as we journey along with young Lil on a voyage of discovery in this magical version of New York. It’s a satisfying mix of folk magic and good, old fashioned youngster gifted magical powers storyline. All marshalled into being by Kek-W and the artistic team of David Roach and Peter Doherty, doing an excellent job of taking over from the late John Burns.

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THE OUT – BOOK FOUR – PART 7 – by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison. Letters by Simon Bowland

This episode – Cyd heads out to the local tourist attraction and goes on a walk. That’s it. Cyd goes for a walk. That’s all that happens in this episode.

And bloody hell, it’s so fabulously good. Five pages of nothing that are actually five pages of everything The Out is all about.

Cud’s on a walk of course because it’s all got a bit much. Finding out that Earth’s been destroyed for who knows how long and she’s truly alone out here will do that to you. Plus there’s the loss (again) of her child, Joey, and the death of her friend Cheerio. Is it any wonder she’s having a moment?

But it’s just how Abnett and Harrison play it out that’s the epitome of how incredibly good The Out is and why I’ve always said I’ll quite happily read an entire book or more of Cyd just going around and looking at stuff. In an episode that’s all about her having a truly shit time and just taking a moment to try to come to terms with it all, there’s absolutely no right for it to be so damn funny and entertaining. But it is, it really is. Again, it’s all in the two-hander that Abnett writes in the conversations between Cyd and Bag that makes it sparkle that way. Not to mention how Abnett just can’t resist throwing disappointment Cyd’s way, just like this, as they finally get to where they’ve been walking…

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And the invention thrown out in such a throwaway fashion is a delight. Just the next page from that closed moment, we get the Knuckle Draggers, the most unusual of monsters, just chucked in here to serve up a few gags, where most writers would spin a whole story out of them. Invention, constant invention, all serving the overriding theme of showing us the strange wonders that Cyd gets to experience, whether she wants to or not…

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And every panel seems to have something visually stunning in it, with Harrison crafting pages that are dense yet beautiful, inventive as hell, and yet manage to flow quite perfectly.

It is, as you should know by now, just perfect. But in all of that wonderful dialogue and just the simple thing of Cyd walking, there’s time, lots of it, to see Cyd work a few things out, maybe even find out where she’s going and what she’s planning on doing.

Yep. Perfect.

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ROGUE TROOPER: WHEN A G.I. DIES – PART 7 – by Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard. Letters by Rob Steen

We go deeper and deeper into the mystery of Edvark, the Souther scientist who’s being woven deep into Rogue Trooper history by Ennis here in ‘When A GI Dies’. Here we learn that Edvarks’s creation of a new generation of GIs was designed to wipe out the old generation, specifically Rogue, creations of a program that he was removed from.

And then, really throwing the cat amongst the pigeons, we have the idea that Gunnar, the GI who inhabits the chip in Rogue’s gun, was one of Edvark’s creations, meaning there’s a potentially brainwashed GI inhabiting Rogue’s gun right now.

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Meanwhile, as GI Doll Azure is finding all that out on Milli-Com, her GI Doll colleague is down on Nu-Earth, under fire, and about to meet Rogue himself.

Oh, I really do keep going back and forth on this. It’s just one I can’t make my mind up on. I keep veering between not really getting it, feeling there’s too much playing around with the history, too much reliance on the continuity of Rogue Trooper, and then we have moments like this where all the playing around with the continuity actually opens up something really fascinating.

I honestly don’t know which way this one’s going, just as I don’t really know what I’m thinking of it, not yet anyway. It’s going to be one of those that, I’m thinking more and more, really gels in a collection.